9/21/2005

Get Paid For Being Overweight

The US is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world. With fast food restaurants on every corner and Krispy Kreme doughnuts offered in many gas stations and convenient stores it’s no wonder that our country has a problem with obesity. We have become a fast-food nation, always on the run, and usually looking for something quick and convenient. Obesity has become a major problem for businesses, schools, families, government, and includes people of all ages. There are more kids with diabetes under the age of twelve than ever before, and in a majority of those cases diabetes was followed by obesity. What really concerns me is the government’s involvement in allocating Social Security to people who suffer from obesity. If you are obese, you may be entitled to disability payments from the Social Security Administration (SSA)! According to the SSA, $77 million are paid monthly to approximately 137,000 persons who met obesity requirements for disability. http://www.obesity.org/subs/disability/ Are we really drying up our Social Security because people are overweight? I realize that some people are born with bad genetics or have suffered injury that don’t allow them to be active, but after seeing the crowded lines at McDonalds and Krispy Kreme everyday during lunch time I am convinced that many obese people can prevent or help themselves from being obese. I have a good friend that has been working out with me five days a week for about 8 months now, who has changed his diet, and has dropped from 285 pounds to under 250 pounds. He will be the first to admit that he used to be lazy and had a poor diet, but now he is doing something about it.

4 comments:

pramahaphil said...

Great post!!! there is a great documentary on this issue "Super Size Me".

Is it really all that ridiculous that the fast food restaurants are being sued? While yes it is absurd that some people eat there as often as they do (McDonalds calls people who eat more than three times a week, 'Heavy Users')but shouldn't fast food giants be held responsible for the food they sell. Drug manufactures and cigarette manufacturers are sued regularly for problems with their products -- Why should fast food restaurants be held to a lesser standard.

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Bob's post for a poorly formatted link.

-1 on Taylor's comment for a spelling error.

I think you all ought to lighten up a bit. (Since I have a double chin and a belly I should talk - but bear with me while I walk you through some of the economics).

First off, food is cheap, and it is a normal good. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that we are fat.

But, why is food cheap? Because we're very good at producing it. Since food demand is inelastic, this means that it is getting harder to support yourself as a farmer. The natural course of markets is for that process to reduce supply so that prices are pushed up. In some sense, it should be impossible for a soceity to be rich enough to be have a weight problem.

Of course, we screw that up with subsidies. And, while floors raise prices on some products, they create surpluses elsewhere. Thus, we have high fructose corn syrup ... and lots of cheap cheese (there was a study last year showing that virtually all of the above normal calories in the typical American diet come from cheese).

Also, exercise has become relatively more expensive. You can't really burn calories more quickly, which means that as we get richer(and have better ways to spend our time) the opportunity costs of exercise go up.

Matthew said...

Dr. Tufte said that exercise has become more expensive because you can't burn calories more quickly and opportunity costs have gone up. This is so true and something I had never really thought about! Time is a commodity that really can't be multiplied – yes, we can do other things more quickly, allowing for more time, but there's still only 24 hours in a day. The only way it seems to make the burning of calories more efficient is to exercise more effectively with the exercises that burn more calories. An example would be to run uphill for 10 minutes instead of walking on a flat surface for 10 minutes.

Dr. Tufte said...

Exactly ... I could be riding a stationary bike right now and grading papers while doing it, but instead I've chosen to exploit technology to do this form of writing assignment, but I am tied to my desk to correct them.